Welcome to Donald Trump’s new normal

Donald Trump greets supporters after speaking at a campaign rally at the I-X Center Saturday in Cleveland. (Tony Dejak, AP)

CLEVELAND — Hundreds of police officers, Secret Service agents and private security guards in cars, on foot and on horseback blanketed the area around Donald Trump’s campaign rally Saturday afternoon. Dozens of protesters would soon be ejected from the event.

After months spent goading protesters and appearing to encourage violence, Trump has seen his raucous rallies devolve over the past two weeks into events at which chaos is expected. The real estate mogul is routinely unable to deliver a speech without interruption, and a heavy security presence is commonplace amid increasingly violent clashes between protesters and supporters.

On Friday, groupings of well-organized students succeeded in keeping Trump from even taking the stage at a rally in Chicago. The next morning, a protester rushed the stage at a Trump rally outside of Dayton, forcing Secret Service agents to leap on stage and form a protective circle around him.

“Frankly, I’m a little shocked that we got to this point, I’m shocked at it,” said Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is vying with Trump to win his home state’s winner-take-all primary on Tuesday.

“We cannot create in this country a toxic environment where images of people slugging it out at a campaign rally, think about it, are transmitted all over the globe,” he said.

Trump’s events have always been intense. For months, he incorporated interruptions by protesters into his speeches, growling “Get ’em out!” _ sparking explosive cheers from the audiences as he did so.

While Trump sometimes appears angered by the disruptions, he has also embraced them, using the interruptions as opportunities to lead his supporters in chants of “USA, USA.” He’s also joked about how the protesters force TV cameras to pan out over the crowd and show how large they are.

But the confrontations began to escalate this month, most notably at a Trump event in New Orleans. A steady stream of demonstrators interrupted Trump’s speech, including a huddle of Black Lives Matter activists, who locked arms and challenged security officials to remove them.

There were skirmishes throughout the speech, mostly pushing and shoving, although one man was captured on video biting someone.

This week, an older white Trump supporter was caught on video punching a younger African-American protester as police led the protester out of a rally in North Carolina. The supporter, later charged with assault, told an interviewer the next time he confronted a protester, “We might have to kill him.”

Two days later, police arrested nearly three dozen people at a rally in St. Louis that was interrupted so many times by protesters that Trump joked about how long it was taking him to complete his remarks.

Hours before Trump was scheduled to appear Friday night at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the atmosphere inside a campus arena was crackling as protesters and supporters shouted back and forth, arms raised and yelling in each other’s faces.

Some of the protesters, many of whom said they supported Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, said they planned to rush the stage when Trump came out to speak. They didn’t get the chance, as Trump called off the rally before even getting to the venue.

“It feels amazing, everybody came together,” said Kamran Siddiqui, 20, and a student at the school. “That’s what people can do. Now people got to go out and vote because we have the opportunity to stop Trump.”

The next morning, Trump was mid-speech when a man, later identified by authorities as Thomas Dimassimo of Fairborn, Ohio, jumped a barricade and rushed at Trump. He was able to touch the stage before he was tackled by security officials.

Trump laughed it off, but later in the day, picked up his longstanding argument that he’s not to blame for what’s taking place at his events.

“My people aren’t violent,” Trump said at his rally in Cleveland. “It’s these people that come in. My people want to do one thing: Make America great again. That’s what they want to do, one thing.”

At the Cleveland rally, more than a dozen officers on horseback patrolled the outside as police helicopters buzzed overhead. Hundreds of officers massed inside to block some exits and sweep the audience out after the event ended.

More than 50 protesters, including a pair of doctors who removed sweat shirts to reveal white T-shirts printed with “Muslim Doctors Save Lives in Cleveland,” were told to leave.

Brandon Krapes said he was punched repeatedly after he held up his sign, which said, “Trump: Making America Racist Again.” His 17-year-old son Logan had a freshly bruised cheek from what he said was a punch in the face he received while trying to help his father.

“The sheer amount of hatred in there is so blatant, and Trump does nothing to stop it,” said Sean Khurana, a 23-year-old Cuyahoga Community College student, who is Indian-American. He said someone called him “ISIS” as he stood in line. “He provokes it.”

Notice: Your email may not yet have been verified. Please check your email, click the link to verify your address, and then submit your comment. If you can't find this email, access your profile editor to re-send the confirmation email. You must have a verified email to submit a comment. Once you have done so, check again.

Almost Done!

Please confirm the information below before signing up.

{* #socialRegistrationForm *}
{* socialRegistration_firstName *}
{* socialRegistration_lastName *}
{* socialRegistration_emailAddress *}
{* socialRegistration_displayName *}
By clicking "Create Account", I confirm that I have read and understood each of the website terms of service and privacy policy and that I agree to be bound by them.